The Wisdom of Richard Cobden

Some choice quotations from the great peace and free-trade activist who remains relevant today:

The middle and industrious classes of England can have no interest apart from the preservation of peace. The honours, the fame, the emoluments of war belong not to them; the battle-plain is the harvest-field of the aristocracy, watered with the blood of the people.

The peace party . . . will never rouse the conscience of the people so long as they allow them to induldge the comforting delusion that they have been a peace-loving people. We have been the most combative and aggressive community that has existed since the days of Roman dominion.

Hat tip: Ralph Raico (pdf).

Cross-posted at Free Association.